Day 7: An End Has a Start

Nobody likes to dredge through the muck.

This alone is the thesis statement that drives the Valley of Defilement, levels 5-x. Specifically, it refers to 5-2, which is a giant, open pool of poison. There's novelty here amongst the larger game: for one, the first 2/3 of it is a wide open area. There are no corridors and few walls or staircases. Once the player finds themselves at ground level, they can suffer laps around it like a kid being punished at football practice.

It's other unique quality is that actual movement in this sprawling state is hobbled. As far as the eye can see --which isn't very far; it's a dark, foreboding place-- your character is walking through a shin-deep poison bog. Normal jogging is reduced to a slow walk, and holding down the run button will only bring them to the jog (while still depleting stamina). Rolling is completely verboten, so in combat situations, you will always be at a severe disadvantage unless you can come across solid ground. Enemies that you encounter here, though, are back on their bullshit. They can move around however they please without the threat of being inflicted with poison. 5-2, then, has garnered a rightful reputation for being the DS community's least-favorite level of the game.

But the twist is that it's pretty easy when taken on a macro level. Once you find a secure route through the environment. It doesn't take too long to rush from one end of the swamp to the shanty town on the other side. It just takes the guts to get into the sludge and to avoid certain encounters. If you've come prepared with enough curatives to stave off the poison, a trip through the swamp isn't all that bad. Since I would venture that most players wait until close to the end of the game to get through 5-2, this is practically no sweat since they would have collected enough poison-curing consumables along the way. If you fight it at a distance, the boss at the end of the area is a pushover, too. So, sure, it's slow going and kind of a pain to meander through, but while 5-2 sucks, it only sucks if you don't have the stones to put up with its baloney.

Since this was my first time through it in a few years, though, I took my time. I wanted to be thorough and collect as many items as I could. This meant a lot of methodical pacing, but aside from a few idiotic mistakes, Finishing it and the major boss at the end of 5-3, Maiden Astraea/ Garl Vinland, took longer than a normal spin through, but wasn't all bad. In fact, I used a boss soul to forge the Insanity Catalyst, which is a magic wand that pumps up damage output at the expense of cutting your MP in half, which was actually more of a hassle than if I just used a normal catalyst. If this was the only thing I'm complaining about, I thought, it's probably time to clear out the game.

So this is what I did. I took an hour or so to do some end game collecting and a little experimentation (a +4 crescent falchion has stronger attack stats than a +5 Epee Rapier. That's kind of bunk given the trouble it takes to find the latter and then build it to that point), most of it to satisfy my own curiosity. I then jumped into 4-4, the final level of the game. This is a short stretch, but layered with endgame challenges and heavy rewards as it should be. I muscled my way to the finish line fast enough, witnessed the tragic end of maybe the only completely benevolent NPC in the game, and paused. The boss of the area, the False King Allant, was a rough fight. Since I was doing all of this to put a pin on the online functionality, maybe I should head over to the DS subreddit, find a player that wants to jump in and summon some help. Or perhaps I'll drop my summon sign and give other people a hand.

Then I looked at the clock, found that I had been streaming for 3 hours, and said "screw it." It's the end of the first week, not the last. I made short work of Allant with the might of the sorcerer that my Magic stat clearly says I am. I then followed the Maiden in Black down beneath the Nexus and killed the final boss, the actual King Allant; a battle meant to be a snap. The Old One was lulled to sleep, the credits rolled. The first run of the game is down.

The last week was cracking my knuckles. I feel fast and loose, now, stretched and ready for the power lifting. We're at an impasse, though: Should I continue on with New Game Plus, or roll another character and find another ideal route. I honestly don't know.

But we'll talk about that tomorrow.